It remains a perplexing mystery with few clues for searchers and one seasoned forensic expert, who told CBS 2’s Derricke Dennis he’s trying to determine whether these eight deaths are the work of one killer, or more — and whether they’ll strike again.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised. I would not be at all surprised,” John Jay College professor Dr. Charles Bahn said.

“It could be two men who do this together. One of them doing the killing and the other much more interested in the sex.”

Through dense poison ivy bramble and tick-infested undergrowth a phalanx of Suffolk County investigators intensified the search for the missing New Jersey woman, 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert of Jersey City, and what they found was almost beyond comprehension.

“I’d like to report at this time that we found human remains, three human remains so far in the area between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said.

A sign announcing the closure of Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011 (Photo/Mona Rivera)

Flanked by the district attorney, the police commissioner pledged that the identification of the remains will be swift as heartbroken families wait to hear if their missing daughters might be among the latest remains discovered — along a stretch of Ocean Parkway east of Jones Beach.

“The medical examiner is going to be looking at the possibility that Shannan Gilbert is one of the remains,” Dormer said. “We do have forensic and information available to the ME that would either prove it’s her or eliminate her.”

Last week, a fifth individual still unidentified was discovered in rugged underbrush. Four women were found nearby in December. They had worked as prostitutes and escorts advertising on Craigslist.

Helicopters hovered above as cadaver sniffing dogs marched through the terrain. With snow now melted and before the foliage of spring gets underway, the remains were pulled from a 4-foot tall tangle of sea grass and scrub pine, not far from the quiet isolated beachfront location where Gilbert was last seen in May begging for protection at 5 a.m. at a stranger’s door.

“I come over here and start dialing 9-1-1 and I was giving the information and she opened the door and ran. She fell halfway down the stairs,” witness Gus Coletti told McLogan.

Gilbert vanished into the brush. The client she was going to see was cleared as a suspect. As 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reports, resident Joseph Brewer’s home was searched as part of the investigation into Gilbert’s disappearance. Brewer said he was innocent in the case, and his home is now for sale.